As far as methods of time travel go, I’m not sure this one’s all that outlandish: Ingest half a cup of psychedelics, put on a funny hat, and stare into a wormhole disguised as a dryer.
Okay, I take it back. It’s totally weird. And it’s only part of the peculiar fun of Steven Soderbergh’s Command Z, which bills itself as “from the a** of Steven Soderbergh” and takes on the whole concept of traveling to the past to improve the future.
The past, in this case, being 2023.
At some point in the future, Michael Cera appears on a big TV screen and tells three people in a basement (including Roy Wood Jr. and Chloe Radcliffe) that they need to travel to the “inflection point” of 2023 in order to change some things that will make our future—their present—more livable. Their basement is very dark and one gets the sense they do not go outside very often.
This time travel is entirely mental and drops our blue-coveralls-wearing would-be heroes into the minds of various people in 2023, where in theory their voices in these unsuspecting mortals’ heads sound like their own voices, except that doesn’t seem to go quite as planned.
What next? Chaos and hijinx, presumably. Variety notes that Command Z was announced in the newsletter of Soderbergh’s production company with details that are anything but clear:
“I think by now you’re used to me describing the somewhat mercurial behavior of our boss, Mr/Dr Soderbergh, but this most recent development is next level and can’t be kept to myself for reasons you’ll soon understand…If I seem hedgy, it’s because A) None of us have seen it; and B) it’s apparently about ninety minutes long, but there are eight episodes of varying length, so is it an actual series or just a movie cut up into pieces?”
Watch the trailer here. Command Z appears on extension765.com on Monday, July 17th.
